Entries in radio
(12)

This past week was probably one of the slowest on the sports calendar. Maybe most of us should have just taken a vacation, rather than try to wring water from a stone. But it was also the week baseball players began to report for spring training, so with little else to talk about, that got a few radio stations and podcasts calling me up.

That includes my debut on ESPN Upstate, the ESPN Radio affiliate in Greenville, S.C. I don't know if that will result in a regular gig or not (and might depend on how much people want to talk about the Atlanta Braves), but it's always fun to talk to someone new, especially when it's practically a local show. Here are some audio links, if you'd like to listen:

-- Sylvester Stallone will probably be the best moment of the 2016 Oscars, if — when — he wins Best Supporting Actor and gets a great victory lap for his career. [NY Times]

-- "How does TMZ get this stuff?" The deep network of sources the tabloid site has built up, largely with generous payouts for tips and leaks, is impressive. "Everybody rats everybody else out." [New Yorker]

-- During a time when we see as divided politically as ever, the friendship between Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg could teach us some lessons about respecting one another's views. [Washington Post]

-- I've been a longtime fan of John Dickerson for his work at Slate, which has always been thoughtful, insightful and witty. Glad to see him get his moment as host of CBS' Face the Nation during this election. [NY Times]

-- Don Van Natta and Seth Wickersham have been doing great work for ESPN, the latest example being this account of the Rams moving back to Los Angeles. [ESPN The Magazine]

-- I go back and forth on Matt Taibbi, respecting his boldness and aggressiveness while also cringing because he seems to enjoy being a jerk. But he has some great points about fans and media caring about sports more than politics and current events. [The Cauldron]

Writing-wise, I ended the week on a bit of an anxious note, after criticizing Lance Berkman for taking a stand against a LGBT rights proposition in Houston. As you might expect, that drew some negative reaction on social media with several attacks on Facebook and Twitter. I was also drawn into some comparatively civil discussions, which were still upsetting since it was clear no minds were going to be changed.

But this is the life that I have chosen, and I felt strongly enough about what I view as prejudice and persecution to have written about it. I'm grateful that I have that outlet and hope I didn't give my editors too much moderation work on a Friday evening.

One radio appearance podcast for the week on 1700 The Champ in Iowa. (Thanks as always to Marty Tirrell and Trent Condon for setting that up. I love talking with those guys, and am flattered that they want my opinions on baseball.) Those might pick up a bit now that MLB is about to enter the postseason, which will be very exciting.

-- I did not know this about my friend Howard Cole, but Sept. 22 was the 25th anniversary of his kidney transplant. Twenty-five years since he received a new lease on life. [CNN]

-- Big news in Asheville this week, which became a national story, was two coffee shop owners being exposed as serial misogynists and womanizers. Detailing their conquests and the demeaning way they portrayed women was discovered online, and their business is in fatal trouble. [Asheville Blog]

-- E-books sales are down, while print book sales are up? That's not what was supposed to happen. Wasn't print supposed to be dead? Personally, I still like reading a book and carrying it around, though I have a Kindle and iPad. It's an escape from looking at a screen all day. [New York Times]

-- I'm more jaded about marriage than I've ever been, so was naturally interested in quotes from men explaining when they knew their marriages were over. Some of these are sad, some are obvious. [Huffington Post]

Leading up to Labor Day weekend, I wasn't sure what kind of writing workload I might take on. I didn't write many longer-form columns this week, though I'm happy I did something on Wes Craven's Swamp Thing. Due to scheduling, unexpected events and some poor planning, I didn't write as much baseball stuff as I intended. We'll try again next week!

Yet between having to help keep the office running while big stuff was happening on- and off-site with Awful Announcing, along with stories about the Concussion trailer and Jim Harbaugh's debut as Michigan football coach, it turned out to be typically busy.

Here are podcasts of two radio interviews this week (besides my weekly hits on ESPN Asheville):

-- Roberto Ferdman continues to be one of my favorite writers. Here's a piece he did on the effect low-carb and gluten-free eating has had on pasta sales, even in Italy. (This one definitely hits home for me, since I have to watch my carbs closely.) [Washington Post]

-- I'm in favor of baseball players showing more flair and emotion on the field. Why is bat-flipping so accepted in South Korea, for example, but not in America? Too showy? Not playing "the right way"? C'mon, it's fun. [New York Times]

-- One of my favorite shows is PBS' The Mind of a Chef. One of the subjects of season four is Gabrielle Hamilton. "[...] it’s about 40 percent food and 60 percent health department, payroll, plumbing, refrigeration, garbage, bill paying. It’s not like you sit around thinking up your next masterpiece dish." [Vanity Fair]

-- If it seems like we see more one-handed catches in football than ever before, it's probably not your imagination. And it's almost certainly because of the gloves skill position players wear. (Even the quarterbacks are wearing them now!) [Los Angeles Times]

During a week in which I somehow didn't write any baseball columns or articles, I was extremely grateful to scratch that itch by doing some analysis on sports talk radio. Besides my two weekly spots on ESPN Asheville, I managed to hit a few of my regular stops as well. You can listen to those here:

Back on the baseball bus this coming week! I can't go that long without some ballwriting, especially as we go into September, the last month of what's been a fun regular season and building toward what promises to be an exciting postseason.

-- One of the most intriguing aspects of Stephen Colbert taking over CBS' The Late Show is him ditching the persona he developed for years on The Colbert Report. That is just one thing this profile by Joel Lovell touches on, as Colbert prepares to step into the network spotlight. [GQ]

-- I'm very intrigued by TNT's new show Public Morals, with Edward Burns being the creative force behind it. He's kind of the face of 1990s indie romantic dramedy to me, and now he's doing a period cop drama on TV? [indieWIRE]

-- Jimmy Carter's presidential legacy often gets sneered at and shit upon. But he deserves much better. If you're not familiar with what he accomplished in the White House, here's a primer on his legacy from someone who worked in the Carter administration. [New York Times]

-- Remember when Borat was a big thing, with so many people you know talking about the movie or doing an imitation of him? Nine years later, it's a cultural relic. Is it just that we're fickle or was Borat's humor more a product of its time? [Splitsider]

-- Ownership of web addresses and URLs is often a tricky thing, sometimes with intriguing stories behind them. Ben Lindbergh writes about the brothers who still won't give up "Twins.com" to the Minnesota Twins baseball team. Will MLB ever meet their price (whatever it is)? [Grantland]

-- Larry King is still around, folks. His TV show is long gone, CNN filling that slot with documentaries and special news programs now. King is still tweeting and has an internet show, though he's now thinking about how his career and life will end. [New York Times]

Well, hello there! I'm actually getting one of these weekly updates posted on time this week. It was a good week for radio appearances, as baseball season is starting get into urgent pennant race mode. Maybe its last hurrah before football season begins. Here are podcasts from three of my appearances (which unfortunately don't include my two weekly spots on ESPN Asheville):

And here is the stuff I wrote this week, picking up a bit after what I suppose was a lighter load during the dog days of summer. I even wrote two baseball columns, after not doing much on that last week. Thanks for checking in!

-- Marvin Gaye tried out for the Detroit Lions? Some fans may know that Mel Farr and Lem Barney sang background vocals on "What's Going On," but the singer used that connection and worked out hard to get a shot at catching some passes for coach Joe Schmidt. [ESPN.com]

-- I've been reading some of David Foster Wallace's essays since seeing The End of the Tour. He wrote this one after 9-11, recounting how the town of Bloomington, Ill. (where Wallace was teaching) reacted to what happened. [Rolling Stone]

-- The dirty not-so-secret about minor league baseball is that players are woefully underpaid, likely earning below minimum wage. At a given minor league game, the guys on the field are probably earning the lowest salaries in the ballpark. [New Yorker]

-- Roberto Ferdman is consistently writing some of the most interesting stuff in the Washington Post these days (which I gushed about on Twitter). For instance, this piece on the disparity in pay between waitstaff and cooks, and the increasing effect on the restaurant business. [Washington Post]

-- Do you use an ad blocker on your web browser? Dayn Perry turned me on to Flashcontrol for Google Chrome, and it has made daily browsing far more pleasant. No more videos playing as soon as I open a link. As Farhad Manjoo writes, increasing use of these — especially on mobile devices — will likely change the sorts of content advertisers produce. [New York Times]

Summer vacations have been good for me on the radio. I subbed in as co-host with Pat Ryan on ESPN Asheville twice this week (in addition to my two regular baseball spots), which was a whole lot of fun. If you told me 20 years ago that I would someday make appearances or co-hosting spots on sports talk radio, I'd have been thrilled. I very much appreciate Pat giving me the opportunity to indulge a dream.

It kills me that I can't post podcasts to those shows, but big things are ahead for The WISE Guys which might include making those appearances available to a wider audience. But here are the radio hits I can share with you from this week:

-- Just not a good week for anyone involved with Fantastic Four. Josh Trank ripped Fox in a tweet before deleting it. Then star Miles Teller had this profile, which makes him look like a jerk. Comparing glassware to his cock to a female writer? Classy. [Esquire]

-- This is a really good explanation of how TV ratings work, and just how many people are watching, though it's obviously an inexact science. But it helps explain why sites like BuzzFeed, Vice are trying hard to get their brands and content onto television. The internet only has so much reach, believe it or not. [Medium]

-- As long as Tom Cruise makes cool action movies, people seem to be able to separate what they see on screen from the weirdo he seems to be in real life. The key seems to be making action movies, though. When's the last time Cruise performed in any sort of drama? [Vulture]

-- Film critic Glenn Kenny was a friend of David Foster Wallace. He's not too thrilled about the attempt to make a movie featuring Wallace, with Jason Segel portraying him. As you might expect, Kenny has major problems with how Segel plays Wallace. I have to believe that will be a huge obstacle for anyone familiar with Wallace, or who knew him well. [The Guardian]

It figured to be a busy week with the MLB Trade Deadline on Friday. But after noting all of my posts for the week, I'm kind of surprised at how much I wrote. Thanks for being interesting and newsworthy, baseball!

One radio appearance podcasted for the week. Tony James and Ryan Roberts subbed in on Des Moines' 1700 The Champ for Marty Tirrell and Ken Miller, and asked if I could come on to talk about trade deadline news. Fortunately, they had a spot open after the 4 p.m. ET deadline.

In what may be the highlight of the week, this happened. (Thanks to Purple Row's Bryan Kilpatrick for bringing it to my attention.)

Your browser does not support iframes.

I honestly can't remember when I posted that tweet, probably toward the beginning of the season. If I ever meet Troy Tulowitzki, I'm sure he won't remember this. And maybe it would be smart of me not to bring it up.

OK, here is the past week's writing, along with the stuff I thought was worth reading. Much appreciation for you checking in.

-- If there was one person's response I wanted to read on the Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage, it was Andrew Sullivan. [The Dish]

-- I'd always been in favor of gay marriage. I didn't really understand why anyone would be against it. (Oh, I was so naive.) But not until reading Sullivan's 1989 essay, "Here Comes the Groom," did I really get why the concept of marriage was so important to certain gay people. [The New Republic]

-- One of those trends that you maybe didn't quite notice was a thing, but I'm glad Roberto Ferdman wrote about it. What is up with waitstaff snatching up those plates as soon as you're done, even if the entire party isn't done? [Washington Post]

-- The baseball bat is a crucial piece of equipment that always figured to be what it's always been. I mean, you can fatten the barrel or skim the handle, but the basic design is the same, right? But what if that knob on the end of the handle — one which may cause hand injuries — can be altered? [Yahoo! Sports]

-- Many of you probably know that Eric Stoltz was the original star of Back to the Future, not Michael J. Fox. But how exactly did the process of replacing Stoltz go with producers and director Robert Zemeckis? This is really intriguing. [Vulture]